Online Auctions
by Roger Barnette
The Internet is rife with deals, but the most
dependable ones are between ordinary people.
Out of this simple concept was born
the online auction.
Online auctions are between users like
you and me, but adjudicated by an unbiased
third-party, the auction website. People
often call this consumer to consumer (C2C)
eCommerce.
http://www.ebay.com
The most popular of these is EBay. Lately
they have been really spending a lot of
advertising budget on television ads, and
as you might imagine, everything that has
ever darkened the inside of garage storage
is represented; from the figurative white
elephant to prized antique, it's all there.
EBay also has lately purchased another
web company: Half.com.
http://www.half.com
This website is for the buying and selling
of books and tapes that you may want to sell.
They take the ISBN off the product and
automatically load all the product information
for you and then you can set your price
based on the condition of the item.
My favorite auction related website though,
is called eSnipe. http://www.esnipe.com
During any auction, you can imagine that
two determined bidders could bid up the price
beyond a reasonable level. To prevent that
from happening eSnipe allows you to program
their website to bid for you within moments
of the end of the auction. The electronic
bidder from eSnipe logs into EBay on your
behalf and very often wins for you. Best
of all using eSnipe takes the emotional
impulse to outbid your competitor.
The result? A great auction value.
If you would like assistance setting up
an auction, please feel free to call.
I can do digital photography for your
auction and help you navigate EBay
to find the right price for your product.
May all your bids win cheaply!
(2002-11-20) Return to Archives
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